• What do we mean by innovation?

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    A commonly used definition of innovation is:

    “…a continuous process of practical implementation of ideas that result in the introduction of new goods or services or the improvement in offering goods or services.”
    Rogers 2003; Tidd and Bessant 2020

    A 'continuous process' means that it's not a one-time event. The world around us is changing fast (technology, the economy, our climate, and our society to name a few) and we need to stay ahead of these changes. Innovation is one way we can do this.

    For us, this means that as well as gathering ideas to help us now, we want innovation to be part of how we do things in East Ayrshire. You can help by keeping innovation as a priority focus of your work, as an individual and as a team.


  • Innovation in health and social care

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    When it comes to health and wellbeing, it is our responsibility as an organisation to make sure that we continue to provide services in a way that meets the needs of the people in our communities.

    Without innovation, we are at risk of the costs of delivering a service becoming more expensive, or services become irrelevant and altogether wasteful. We also lose out on the opportunity to add value to the people we serve.

    That’s why we are taking a bold new step towards innovation, so that we can provide services that people need at the right time and at the right place.


    Our podiatry team running a community appointment team to improve waiting times and outcomes for patients.


  • Our plan for innovation

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    If we work together and share our thoughts and ideas about how to improve, we can start to see some positive things happen and better outcomes for the people in our society.

    Our plan for innovation starts with collecting ideas from colleagues who are closest to the needs of our residents. We’re looking for ideas that will help us reduce costs and waiting times, improve services, serve more people and tackle poverty and inequalities. These ideas will also help us achieve our Strategic Plan 2021-30.

    We will work with colleagues to develop their ideas and test them. Once these ideas are in full operation and we are seeing results, we will make them a part of our everyday work. That’s innovation!

    Our strategic priorities

    • Starting well, living well and dying well
    • Safe and protected
    • People at the heart of what we do
    • Caring for East Ayrshire
    • Caring for our workforce
    • Digital connections


    Tree graphic with our strategic priorities in circles


  • Coming up with an innovative idea

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    You can take part in innovation simply by submitting an idea that you think will help us achieve our goals: to better serve people and reduce the costs of what we currently do.

    Consider collaborating - the bigger the better! It is absolutely fine to submit an idea on your own or as a group or team. We would encourage you to speak or work with other people. We have a partnership full of experience, expertise and viewpoints that your idea could benefit from. Just make sure you state the names of everyone involved when submitting an idea.

    Our call for ideas will conclude in August 2025, and from now until then we want to explore the potential of every idea submitted to us. Remember, there are no wrong answers here and if we can’t use your idea now, we will save it for a time when our services are better placed to make it happen.



  • Celebrating your ideas

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    When an idea becomes a reality, we want to celebrate the work that has gone into making it happen, the people involved and those it has impacted. We’re serious about celebrating success and want to encourage as many people as possible to take part.

    We want East Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership to be an organisation that can deliver services that are relevant to society, well into the future. By innovating today we’re creating a better tomorrow for our workforce and our communities, regardless of the changes happening around us.



  • Guidance notes for ideas

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    These guidance notes must be read together with our Terms and Conditions for Participation

    1. We will examine whether ideas are capable of being implemented and provide a realistic opportunity to make a positive impact. We will do this through an analysis of our partnership's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT analysis). From this analysis we will decide whether we can progress an idea at this time. A variety of reasons may stop us from progressing an idea, such as a lack of specific human resource skills, or current legal, financial or political considerations. It is not because of a lack of potential in ideas, and those that we cannot progress right now will be saved in an idea bank and revisited as the environment we operate in changes.
    2. There is no limit to word count when submitting your idea. Just make sure you tell us what the problem is and your solution to this problem.
    3. If you have a rough estimate of how much your idea will save or how many people it will benefit, please say so. The more information your idea has, the easier it is to identify the value of it. However, you don’t have to know all the details at the submission stage.
    4. You can partner up with others to come up with an idea as well as design and develop it. We strongly believe in partnership working, so we encourage teaming up if possible. But don’t worry if you don’t have a team, every idea counts and will be considered.
    5. We would like to know the names of the people submitting an idea so we can credit them when the idea becomes a reality.
    6. Ideas must clearly articulate the impact you think it will have such as the reduced costs of service delivery, time saved, reduced waiting lists, lesser waiting times, better work performance, increased job satisfaction and so on.
    7. Do not insert patient identifiable information when submitting your idea. We only want to know how it works and who it will impact. For example, older people, children and families, people living with disabilities etc.
    8. We will respond to every submission within 20 working days.

  • Terms and conditions for participation

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    1. Definitions

    In these terms and conditions, the following words and expressions shall have the meanings ascribed to them below:

    “EA HSCP” means the East Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership headquartered at The Johnnie Walker Bond, 15 Strand Street, Kilmarnock, KA1 1HU.

    “You” refers to the person/s submitting the idea whether that is a group of people or an individual.

    “Innovation form” means a document in which You provide a description of Your innovation which is submitted via the Innovation Hub online platform.

    “The Innovation Hub” means the East Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership’s online platform for receiving ideas electronically and can be found on https://engagementea.east-ayrshire.gov.uk/hscp-innovation-hub

    “Evaluation Criteria” means the considerations used by adjudicators (specialists in the service area) for deciding which submitted ideas are ‘workable’ or ‘non-workable’, these considerations are available to view on The Innovation Hub.

    “Workable idea” means an idea that is capable of being implemented within the partnership and provides a realistic opportunity to make a positive impact.

    “Non-workable idea” means an idea that cannot be implemented at this time, not because it has no potential but rather because the current EA HSCP service structure does not allow. This could be for a variety of reasons including but not limited to a lack of specific human resource skills; legal, financial, political considerations.

    “Idea Bank” – A record of ideas submitted and their categories after adjudication.

    “Service Structure” means the existing business model of East Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership.

    “Professional community” means NHS Ayrshire & Arran staff and East Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership colleagues.

    “Adjudicators” means a panel of specialists in the service area, which may also include individual members from senior management, the professional community and East Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership.

    “Intellectual Property” (IP) includes any patents, rights to inventions, copyright and related rights, trademarks, trade names and domain names, rights in get-up, rights in goodwill or to sue for passing off, unfair competition rights, rights in designs, rights in computer software, database rights, rights in confidential information (including know-how and trade secrets) and any other intellectual property rights, in each case whether registered or unregistered and including all applications (and rights applied for), and renewals or extensions of, such rights and all similar or equivalent rights or forms of protection which subsist or will subsist, now or in the future, in any part of the world.

    2. General

    2.1 The EA HSCP Innovation Hub campaign is being run to promote, encourage and support the development of innovative practices in East Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership establishments. Digital innovation solutions will be considered as part of this campaign.

    2.2 East Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to vary, delete or add to these Terms and Conditions at any time during the campaign. Any changes to these terms and conditions will be posted on the Innovation Hub.

    3. Eligibility criteria and participation

    3.1 The Innovation Hub campaign is open to employees of East Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership.

    3.2 There is no restriction on the number of different submissions that a participant/s can enter for the Innovation Hub campaign, though each idea must be submitted on a separate Innovation form.

    3.3 All participants must agree to comply with the Innovation Hub campaign terms and conditions. You will be deemed to have agreed to such terms and conditions by submitting an idea to the Innovation Hub via an Innovation Hub form.

    3.4 All Innovation ideas must be submitted via the online form which can be found at https://engagementea.east-ayrshire.gov.uk/hscp-innovation-hub, however, the form is available in paper copy upon request and hardcopy submissions will be received at The Johnnie Walker Bond, 15 Strand Street, Kilmarnock, KA1 1HU. The campaign will run for 12 months, and the Innovation Hub will continuously be open to receive new ideas unless otherwise stated on the Innovation Hub website, see point 4.2.

    3.5 Should there be any dispute over a submission; East Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership’s decision is final. East Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership does not accept responsibility for lost or delayed submissions.

    3.6 Engagement sessions will be available for staff to develop their ideas after submission and will be notified regarding the outcome within twenty working days. Further correspondence regarding the idea and development will be made directly with the person/s submitting the idea.

    3.7 The Innovation Hub form requires You to: (i) include a summary which You agree may be published on the website as a success story to promote the campaign (This would take place after idea submissions have been fully developed, implemented and benefits achieved and any patentable material identified); (ii) complete the entire Innovation form with no maximum word count for each section, (iii) submit (optionally) a maximum of six (6) files, each of which must not exceed ten megabytes (10mb) each in size. You may wish to refer to the Guidance Notes before completing Your online submission.

    3.8 Innovation forms which do not comply with these terms and conditions will be rejected. However, support for participants with additional needs will be provided, email us at innovation@east-ayrshire.gov.uk if you require further support to fill in the innovation form.

    No responsibility is accepted by East Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership for Innovation Hub forms which are lost, damaged, or delayed by network, computer hardware or software failures. Proof of sending is not proof of receipt.

    3.9 East Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership’s computer record of Your idea (including Your submission date) will be considered the accurate record of Your Innovation Hub Innovation form.

    3.10 You should retain a copy of all relevant documents as Your Innovation Hub form will not be returned by East Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership.

    3.11 The adjudicators will take the final decision regarding workable and non-workable ideas.

    3.12 You agree to allow East Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership to use Your name and photograph for publicity arising out of the Innovation Hub campaign to celebrate success and share good news stories. You agree to inform EA HSCP in writing if you would prefer your identity to be anonymised. You and your team (if applicable) may be asked to participate in promotional activities, participation is, however, optional.

    3.14 You are responsible for disclosing potential intellectual property issues/rights in any part of Your Innovation Hub form. You agree to give credit to the originator of your idea (where the innovation has been done elsewhere and the idea is to trial this in EA HSCP).

    3.15 As part of the Innovation Hub Campaign, the Innovation form information will be processed by East Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership. By accepting these terms and conditions, You agree that any information submitted via the Innovation form, relating to yourself will be used for the sole purpose of administering the Innovation Hub campaign.

    3.16 You are responsible for all expenses and costs incurred in preparing and completing Your Innovation Hub form.

    3.17 These terms and conditions are aligned to EAHSCP HR policies and have been approved for publishing by the HR manager for EA HSCP.

    4. Adjudicating

    4.1 The selection of ‘workable ideas’ will be decided by EA HSCP adjudicators (who will remain anonymous for the duration of the campaign).

    4.2 The Innovation Hub idea submission portal may be suspended without notice or if deemed that there is excess number of Innovation form submissions that require maximum input from the innovation team/ adjudicators.

    4.3 Notification of the adjudicators’ decision and rationale will be made via correspondence directly to the person/s who have submitted the idea.

    5. Liability

    5.1 East Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership does not accept any liability to any participant/s for any financial or physical loss or damage whatsoever and howsoever arising in relation to the Innovation Hub campaign.

    5.2 EAHSCP recommends that videos viewed on the Innovation Hub platform be viewed over WIFI networks to avoid costs associated with data consumption.